The energy conglomerate reported pre-tax profits up 28pc to £365.5m in its first set of full year results since listing last spring – well ahead of market expectations.

Its revenue also jumped 40pc to £10bn as it increased power output substantially and higher oil refining margins.

However, the company was forced to admit that its massive expansion programme has suffered a couple of setbacks, sending its share price down 34.6 to 440.4p. The construction of three power plants has been delayed by three months, partly because of heavy monsoon rains affecting construction.

In addition, Essar is still awaiting permission from the Indian government to clear forests for its planned coal mines in a process that has been dragging on for many months.

To feed its new Mahan coal plant, it will now initially have to buy more expensive supplies from the state-run Coal India.

Essar is trying to expand its output by ten-fold to 11 gigawatts over the next few years to take advantage of India's rapid industrialisation.

It has already increased its electricity production from 1.1 gigawatts to 1.6 gigawatts since listing in London. There are ten plants currently under construction and another two are still in the development phase.

Prashant Ruia, vice chairman of Essar Energy and chief executive of its controlling shareholder, Essar Group, insisted that the company was largely on schedule with its new projects.

"Operations have gone better than consensus," he said.

"We've got another 2.9 gigawatts coming on stream this year, so we'll have 4.5 gigawatts operational and then it won't look like such a long way to go. We've also made significant progress in tying up financing.

"We've lost about a quarter of a year in delays but in the scheme of things, if they are all complete this year, it will still be far better than expected."

Essar is also in the process of buying Royal Dutch Shell's Stanlow oil refinery and the company said it is hoping this transaction will be complete within the next ten days.

The Cheshire site could soon be partly used as an import terminal for Essar's giant Vadinar refinery in India, which is currently being expanded and modified to produce European grade fuel.

Mr Ruia said: "The UK and Europe are short of certain oil products and this will give us the option of [importing them through Stanlow]."

The Vadinar plant processed a record 107.2m barrels of crude in during 2010, up 11.3pc on 2009.

Essar raised £1.2bn when it listed in April last year in London's biggest primary flotation in more than two years. It then raised another $550m (£340m) through a convertible bond in January.